Not much in LS, just a few details, but, WOW
LS manhole covers and storm grates are on this page
The tools set looks to be a real bargain. Thanks for this.
A great site, thanks. Gears look useful. Hope more LS stuff will be forthcoming.
Steve
Dave has some great stuff. I have a set of his gears. He uses a special kind of card stock. It’s fairly tough but I don’t know if it’s waterproof, so you’d want to thoroughly coat it with paint. You might even want to soak some thin CA into it prior to painting.
The material Dave uses is called LaserBoard. It is a polyester impregnated kraft paper that comes in several thicknesses (0.011" to about 0.024").
It cuts with a laser like a dream - look at the crisp edges on Dave’s website - and allows for raster cut 3D effects that are to die for. While flexible in large sheets, it “stiffens up” as to you get to smaller pieces, and obviously with thicker stock. If you were going to build a large structure from it, it would need to have supports glued to the backs of the walls to keep it from bowing. It does glue very well with almost any glue. There are several laser manufacturers on the web that do offer structures made from it, but they are almost all in HO, N or even Z scale - I think this is a nod to problems in trying to create large buildings that will be self supporting. I suppose it might be possible to laminate it to a plywood backer to overcome this problem. In its native state, however, I think it would be mostly useful in large scale for high quality detail parts.
It is NOT waterproof and will absorb water to varying degrees - in fact, soaking it in water for several hours makes it act like a limp noodle. I would think it would be a real problem for permanent outdoor installations unless REALLY well painted/sealed. That being said, it takes paint better than almost any other product I’ve ever used. While you can cut it with a hobby knife, it is quite hard on the blade edge. I have not tried cutting it with scissors or put it into a shear, so I can make no comment about that.
Someone had given me a small piece for me to play with on my laser cutter several years ago and it was by far the best material I have ever tried.
The problem is finding the stuff. Northeastern stocks and sells the stuff but do not list it on their website, so you have to call them. They will only sell to established businesses and then with an outrageous minimum order of $1,000 (yes, one thousand). The sheets they sell are 12x24" and when I last called them several years ago, it was $3/sheet in packs of fifty. Don’t remember what thicknesses they sold or if there were different prices for different thicknesses.
If anybody has a line on this stuff, I’m all ears!
Brian
Taxachusetts